Magic and music at the Yvonne Arnaud

THEATRICAL adventures and magical musical journeys take centre stage at the Yvonne Arnaud’s autumn season with more famous faces, shows for children, classic comedy, some intimate evenings with old friends, musical delights and the family pantomime Aladdin.

THEATRICAL adventures and magical musical journeys take centre stage at the Yvonne Arnaud’s autumn season with more famous faces, shows for children, classic comedy, some intimate evenings with old friends, musical delights and the family pantomime Aladdin.

The new season begins with Peter Nichols’s gleefully observant comedy Born in the Gardens, from Monday, September 1 to Saturday, September 6. Maud and her son Mo have a happy existence in the crumbly old family home: she talks to the TV and he chats to the cat! When the other siblings return home for their father’s funeral, they try to persuade the pair to leave the confines of the mock Tudor house but how will their offer of freedom be met? Stephanie Cole and Simon Shepherd lead the cast.

Other dramatic delights include the theatre adaptation of Hitchock’s classic film of lies, lost ladies and locomotives, The Lady Vanishes, starting Tuesday, September 9; the funny and heart wrenching, My Brilliant Divorce, from Monday, September 15 and the emotionally layered The Holly and the Ivy.

Novels are brought to life this autumn with the adaptations of The Woman in Black, starting September 29 and Liberty from October 21 as well as Thomas Hardy’s production by ETT of From the Madding Crowd from November 11.

Wilde’s An Ideal Husband starts on September 6, and Alan Ayckbourn’s Absurd Person Singular hits the stage on October 13.

Several shows offer an insight on both the subjects and the performers. A Very Private Diary… Revisited! unlocks the diary of screen and theatre star Victor Spinetti from September 17 and An Audience with June Whitfield brings anecdotes and laughter on September 19; Brief Lives dramatises the jottings of John Aubrey from September 22.

Duncan Dares, an evening with former Blue Peter man is on Thursday, October 30 and Sandi Toksvig, talks about her work as comedian, writer and radio presenter in Sandi Toksvig-Available on November 1. On a league of its own is Alex. Stage and screen actor Robert Bathurst brings Britain’s favourite cartoon city slicker to three-dimensional life with the help of a top-class design team, from November 4.

There is also a varied music programme with Kit & The Widow in 100 Not Out, a Western European piano-and-voice-based lounge act on September 20. Woking’s Epworth Choir is celebrating their 50th anniversary with a Gala Concert. Dancing Queen returns to the theatre from November 24 to 29.

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, the Smarties Book Prize winner by Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen, is brought vividly to life from October 1. Angelina Ballerina puts on her own performance of The Sleeping Beauty from October 28 and Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs is an adventure for three to eight-year-olds from October 30.

This year’s panto, Aladdin, will run from December 5. Nigel Havers plays Abananza, Peter Gordon is the Emperor of China and Royce Mills is Widow Twankey.